The Importance of Providing Mental Health Resources Alongside Our Youth and Family Services
The Importance of Providing Mental Health Resources Alongside Our Youth and Family Services
At Cumberland Youth and Family Services, we believe that taking care of all of our residents’ needs starts with understanding their circumstances. That’s why we work hard to provide all of our youth and family services residents with mental health resources, as well as emergency shelter services, medical support and academic readiness. Here is everything you need to know about why it is important that we provide mental health resources to youth in foster care:
Why Mental Health Resources Are So Important
To be entered into foster care, most of the time you have to come from a home that is not deemed an appropriate place to raise a child. Many of our youth in foster care residents come from homes where they endured a number of traumatic situations, from abuse to neglect. In fact, up to 80% of youth in foster care have significant mental health issues from the traumas that they have endured. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that mental and behavioral health is the “greatest unmet health need for children and teens in foster care.” If left untreated, these traumatic experiences can manifest themselves into serious mental health disorders such as, PTSD, anxiety and depression, drug addiction and eating disorders.
According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, almost two-thirds of people have experienced at least one adverse childhood experience, while more than one in five reported three or more. Meaning that trauma is something that a majority of the population experiences at an early age, whether they end up in foster care or not. Some people are more prone to experiencing adverse childhood experiences because of the social and economic conditions in which they live, learn, work and play. The people that grow up with positive relationships in their lives are more likely to overcome their adverse childhood experiences by building positive coping mechanisms. That is why we work so hard to be a positive influence on the lives of all of our residents.
How Cumberland Helps Our Youth in Foster Care
We view mental and behavioral health as a massive issue facing each of our residents, so we work to help them through their experiences with our services. Our on-site counselors work with our residents to help them overcome their hardships through social skills and relationship building. We aim to help our residents develop positive coping mechanisms so they can heal and grow from their experiences. Our goal is to help our residents overcome their hardships by providing them with mental health resources and creating a sense of normalcy in their everyday lives.
Mental Health Resources for Youth and Family Services
Many of the single-parent families in our Families Residential Program have also experienced some form of trauma in their lives. Through the families in our FRP program, we have seen many instances of past traumas such as domestic abuse, drug addiction and other forms of trauma. We work with these parents, and their children, to help each of them overcome their experiences in a way that promotes personal growth. Everyone needs a little bit of help sometimes, and we find that when we are able to provide these families with our services, they are able to get back up on their feet in most cases.
Becoming a Trauma-Informed Agency
As an agency dedicated to healing, we recognize trauma's widespread and lasting influence not only on the lives of our residents, but also on aspects of our programming and operations. While our commitment to trauma-informed policy and practice is not new, this year we have pledged to adopt the approach with deep intentionality. We recognize that trauma-informed practice is essential and will help us foster resilience in our residents, staff and our entire community.
Becoming a trauma-informed campus means that we would infuse and sustain trauma awareness into every aspect of our campus--a practice that will require significant investments.
The Life Association and Life Community Enrichment organizations provided our agency with a generous donation that was specifically to support our trauma-informed initiative. Due to their generous support and transformational gift, we have been able to advance our trauma-informed initiative to better support our residents. Their gift allowed us to promote one of our therapists to our Treatment Director, so that she will be able to provide even more coordination of mental health resources to our residents. Their gift to us was the largest single gift that they have ever provided to one organization, because they believe being trauma-informed serves many applications, including non-profits, civic groups, community groups and even schools.
To us, and many others in our field, the need for mental health and behavioral resources is apparent with practically every youth and family services resident we care for on a daily basis. Through our counseling and treatment services, we are able to help prepare each of our residents for life after foster care, so they each have the opportunity to become healthy, well-adjusted and productive members of the community. We believe that no one’s past should dictate their future, that’s why we are so passionate about our commitment to providing these resources for our residents. Want to learn more about all of the services that Cumberland Youth and Family Services provides for our residents? Check out our blog today!
